MICROSTRUCTURE AND RED LUMINESCENCE OF ZNO NANOPARTICLES/NANOFIBERS SYNTHESIZED BY ELECTROSPINNING FOLLOWED BY THERMAL ANNEALING

This paper reports the red visible luminescence of ZnO nanofibers synthesized by electrospinning followed by thermal annealing. The ZnO nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning of the precursor mixture of zinc acetate/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) by using different PVP concentrations, while thermal annealing was kept at 600 degrees C. The ZnO nanofiber diameter was dependent on the PVP concentrations, which increased as PVP concentrations increased. Thermal annealing induced significant changes in ZnO nanofibers, which formed ZnO nanoparticle/nanofiber structures as a function of PVP concentrations. The ZnO nanofibers synthesized with PVP concentration of 20% induced homogeneous distribution of ZnO nanoparticles with highly visible luminescence intensities centering at similar to 650 nm. Results indicated that the use of electrospinning followed by thermal annealing could be an important method for the synthesis of ZnO nanoparticle/nanofiber structures, which could be used in advanced engineering such as optoelectronics and sensing.